Orbital Media gained a lot of attention last year with the release of Racing Gears Advance, which many people claimed was the best racer on the GBA. Now many months later, instead of taking the obvious path with a follow up to Racing Gears, Orbital has instead created an adventure/puzzle hybrid game by the name of Juka and the Monophonic Menace, a name almost as bizarre as the game itself...

As soon as you enter the colourful and somewhat deserted world of Obla you'll be bombarded by oddity after oddity. The whole land has a complete history full of kings, ancient talking stones, alchemy and a technology based solely on sound manipulation. After many years of good alchemists taking on evil alchemists, good prevailed and the shattered society of Obla was slowly being reformed; however, unknown to all one dark alchemist remained. The Monophonic Menace has resurfaced from exile and aims to conquer Obla and the rest of the world by using a Monophonic spell to protect his minions from the powers of good alchemy. With this spell established, his creatures can roam the land as they please, terrorising anything they come across. You got all that? Because I sure as hell am not going over it again!

You play as Juka, a young orphan boy who has a strong desire to help others and do what is right, which in turn enhances his abilities as an alchemist. He's the perfect stereotypical hero type and as you play you're always guided by an odd inventor friend, who belongs to a strange race of creatures that look like frogs, named Bufo. Perched in a command centre of sorts, Bufo relays information to you about the world around you and various abilities you come across. The world of Juka is loaded with bizarre creatures like Bufo, who aid you on your journey to defeat the dark alchemist, which is one of the most appealing aspects of the game.

It's easy to look at Juka and write it off as a Zelda clone, but it's obvious as soon as you really get going that a lot of thought and care has been put into Juka - almost every aspect is completely original. Your first task is to collect three jars, which hold three separate types of potions (found in bushes, trees and water). The potions are used for various things, but early on you'll need to mix the three ingredients to create sleep potions, animate potions and unlock potions. As you progress you'll uncover plenty more, but these three are the stars of the beginning of the game; used to unlock switches or create a new switch, the unlock and animate potions affect the environment around you and help solve puzzles of sorts, even though they're incredibly easy.

The sleep potion is your first attack ability and it simply allows you to pass by enemies unharmed after causing the pesky creature to doze off into a sound slumber. Your main attack, which is used against most bosses, is very odd indeed: using Juka's sound staff you collect enemy projectiles to build up an attack. For instance, when you encounter an enemy you'll see symbols displayed on the lower portion of the screen; as you battle, the enemy launches various symbol projectiles as a form of attack and when the right ones come up you hold the A button to absorb them. After collecting each one, Juka can launch a charged blast at the enemy, taking him down. If he fires the wrong symbol, you can use your defensive ability, which absorbs the attack and uses it to power up your own sound shield. This system is used throughout the game and though it sounds simple, it gets incredibly hectic when you have multiple enemies firing dozens of shapes at you repeatedly, as you scramble to find the right ones.

Yet another interesting element of gameplay is arguably the most Zelda inspired. As you play, you help ancient stones recover their lost gems and in turn they either give you a new potion or instrument. Instruments are used to unlock paths or instantly create a large batch of potions, but unfortunately you don't actually get to play the instrument as you would in Zelda. Luckily, Juka has plenty of other mini-games that carefully break up the sometimes monotonous gameplay, which usually involve scrambling around to gather specific items.

All the right elements are in place for Juka; you've got a one of a kind attack system that carefully merges a puzzle mini-game with action, a potion mixing system that allows you to create all sorts of neat spells that aid you with environmental puzzles, plenty of items to collect and side quest mini-games to embark on. What stops Juka from being great is the difficulty of the title, which borders on terribly easy to just plain easy. Rarely do the environmental puzzles challenge the player to do anything other than use a spell, and if it is challenging it's probably because you have to go and collect the right potions to make the spell. The combat can be fun and hectic, but it isn't challenging or frequent enough until much too far into the game, which is fairly short as well.

Another major problem with Juka is repetition in numerous departments. Collecting potion after potion by shaking every tree you come across isn't particularly fun after a while, and then mixing the potions over and over after checking your journal for the right combination of elixirs for the twentieth time wears thin quickly too. The biggest problem here is the actual level designs though. The first quarter of the game takes place in a very lush green village area of sorts, but every couple of screens look like the last and you'll even notice reused sections! You'll be thrilled once you come across the second portion of the game, which is very dry and full of canyons; it's loaded with more gameplay elements, such as hanging onto canyon walls to shimmy across, and even some teleporter puzzles reminiscent of A Link to the Past. Still, this section seems to drag on as well; it's not as if it isn't well designed, it just doesn't vary nearly enough, especially since this game is aimed at kids. In all there are six different terrain types, each with new gameplay elements, but getting over the first hurdle will prove tough for some gamers, as it's just too easy yet goes on and on.

It's a shame too, because the graphics in Juka really are quite outstanding. Perhaps one of the most colourful and cheery games you'll come across on the GBA, the character sprites look great and go perfectly with the visual effects used for every spell and attack. With a name like Monophonic Menace, sound obviously plays an important role in Juka as well and excels just as much as the graphics do.

Though it doesn't factor into the battles as much as you'd think, the little touches, such as a tone with an increasing pitch for each elixir you throw into the potion mixer, show a lot of attention to detail from the development team. The MIDI theme songs are also some of the best you'll come across for the GBA; I even found myself humming along to the feel good melodies as I travelled across the often-dull valleys.

Juka and the Monophonic Menace could have been much better, had the puzzles been more challenging and more variety inserted into the world around you. As it stands though, Juka is a worthy addition into the GBA's line up of isometric adventure games and should make the young ones happy, plus provide enough unique concepts to pull in the older audience. Zelda's crown isn't going anywhere, but Juka could have a future as bright as the game itself if they take this idea and throw in even more unique ideas for a sequel. If you're looking for a Zelda inspired game and you've fully exhausted Minish Cap, then Juka is a great choice.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).